(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a knee bolster structure of a vehicle. More particularly, the present invention relates to a knee bolster structure of a vehicle, capable of effectively protecting knees of a driver when a vehicular accident occurs.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
When a vehicular accident occurs, occupants in the driver's seat and front passenger's seat may be moved forwards and collide with the lower panel installed at an inner front portion of the vehicle. If the lower panel is easily deformed, knees of the driver and passenger may further move forwards while deforming the lower panel so that heads and chests of the driver and passenger are pulled back. In this case, the airbag does not effectively protect the driver and passenger. In order to prevent the above problem, a knee bolster is installed at an inner portion of the lower panel in front of the driver's seat in order to prevent knees of the driver from excessively moving beyond the lower panel when a vehicular accident occurs. Such a knee bolster may absorb impact when the knees of the passenger collide with a key set.
However, with the conventional knee bolster structure, when the steering wheel column is compressed due to a vehicular accident, the key set may interfere with a bracket aligned at one side of the key set, so the steering wheel column cannot be easily compressed, thereby causing damage to the chest of the passenger. In addition, a left lower end portion of the driver's seat may not be covered with the conventional knee bolster structure. In this case, a knee (left knee) of the driver may deviate from the knee bolster bracket when oblique collision occurs.
In addition, the conventional knee bolster bracket is vertically coupled to the cowl cross bar, so the conventional knee bolster bracket cannot simultaneously support the knees of a 50% male dummy (knee spacing: 270 mm) and a 5% female dummy (knee spacing: 150 mm), which are used for a vehicle crash test. When the vehicular accident occurs, the knees of the passenger may move in the same direction as an impact energy absorption direction of the knee bolster bracket, so the knees of the passenger may be subject to serious damage.